Design of Bi-functional Bioconjugated Gold Nanoparticles by Pulsed Laser Ablation with Minimized Degradation

Femtosecond-pulsed laser ablation of gold is investigated in electron donor moiety containing biomolecule solutions, resulting in the controlled design of biocompatible, partially charged and electrostaticstab- ilized gold nanoconjugates by in situ surface functionalization. The cell-penetrating peptide penetratin and a targeting miniStrep aptamer sequence are conjugated simultaneously to a single nanoparticle for the first time , producing highly stable gold nanoparticle bi-conjugates with defined degreesof surface coverages for each biomolecule. Ablating gold by 100 µJ laser pulses in presence of 1 µM penetratin and 4.5 µM miniStrep yields an average bioconjugate size of 10nm and results in 61 pmol cm